A Story Of Two Wizards
by rare-fandom
Summary: A story of two wizards, with some college life, friendship, and love thrown in to make it interesting. Tom/Carl, rated T for a paragraph of dark themes and a paragraph of non graphic sexual themes


_A/N I would like to thank Diane Duane for allowing us to muck around in her universe, my music collection for helping this along the numerous times it got stuck,my roommate for ignoring the crazy person sitting at the computer beside her(especially during the last paragraph),and everybody who's left encouraging comments on my other stories for encouraging me._

Tom Swale meets Carl Romeo in an NYU English class. He sets his book bag on the floor beside an empty desk and turns to find a pair of sharp brown eyes studying him from over a copy of that day's New York Times. They realize the other is a wizard at exactly the same moment. Carl makes a sound somewhere between a chuckle and a groan, to which Tom replies that he's more used to being greeted with "Dai Stiho" but he'll take what he can get. Carl laughs. The class starts then, but afterwards they introduce themselves properly and go for coffee and a sandwich.

Tom is just recently 19. Carl is two months shy of being 20. A freshman from California and a native sophomore who have nothing, yet everything, in common.

By summer they are an established routine. They are laughing subway rides to and from and all about the city Tom is coming to love and Carl always has. They are lazy Saturdays and frantic weeknights. They are midnight coffee runs and lunch time pizza deliveries. They are Tom editing Carl's papers while Carl checks Tom's math. People who know them refer to them as if they were one person, their names rolling off tongues that blend them into a single word.

The next July they are on erranty together in some universe three stops over, partners despite the distance. Because the situation warrants it, Carl pushes Tom behind him and speaks the last word of the string of Speech he's been holding in his head. The result is brutal and swift, Carl standing expressionless through it all like some cold avatar of death in jeans and a red flannel shirt. It is the first time it ever occurs to Tom that his partner could be dangerous. He vows to get better at offensive spells so his partner won't have to.

Tom is 20, while Carl is not quite 21. This is Tom's start into research, and four months before Carl becomes a full fledged member of the Grand Central World Gate team.

At Christmas Carl's roommate gets married and moves out, and Carl asks if Tom wants to stop sleeping on the couch and actually move in like he's been threatening for months. Tom's dorm mate says some unflattering things about him that Tom ignores because he'll never have to deal with the bastard again. Carl's boyfriend also has some unflattering things to say, which Tom also ignores for the sake of keeping the peace. Carl is not so forgiving, and by the first of the next year Tom is Carl's roommate and the boyfriend is an ex.

The next year Tom is 21, and he spends most of it falling for Carl. He'll never be quite sure what prompted the shift in his worldview, just that one day he turned around and his best friend slash wizarding partner was suddenly his best friend slash wizarding partner slash a man so gorgeous inside and out that it made his stomach wiggle. It is a year of appreciating the way Carl moves while trying not to be caught looking, swiping shirts from his closet because they smell like him, and thinking that a Brooklyn accent is the sexiest thing in the world. He figures he's no more than a step above love sick and that the only thing keeping him from writing their names together surrounded by hearts is a fear of slipping into Speech and the subsequent consequences. Because it is the way of the universe, Carl is the only one who doesn't catch on, partly because he is the only one of their friends not half expecting this. Lucky for Tom, they eventually take pity and give Carl a friendly kick in the ass.

The next year is more satisfying. Carl takes his major in marketing (minor in accounting) and goes about impressing his superiors at the CBS flag station. Tom finishes a bachelor's in creative writing (minor in journalism), already sending out articles and stories that meet with some success. Whispers in the wizarding world say they could be advisories in a few years if they keep on as they have. Their relationship hits the one year mark and continues to thrive.

In August Tom's parents take a cruise, and offer the empty house to them for a week. Tom convinces Carl to take off work and take advantage. On Friday they come back from the beach soaked to the bone with ocean and storm, and Tom offers him a chance to take an advantage of a different sort. Carl, who isn't a virgin but knows his partner is, wants to know if he's sure. In truth he hasn't been this nervous since his ordeal, but he isn't afraid because he knows Carl won't force him into anything he hasn't already wanted for months. Instead of answering, he removes his wet shirt and lets it fall in a heap on the floor. He reaches for the button on his jeans. Carl's eyes go dark.

They make love on the sleeper sofa in the living room. Tom only has vague ideas about what he's supposed to be doing, but knows what he wants to do and takes it from there. Carl lets him, with gasping breath and murmurs of encouragement, only stopping him long enough to occasionally flip them over and blow his mind by doing things like explore his body with mouth and hands. There's a moment of pain when Carl pushes into him, slick with Aloe Vera from the medicine cabinet, but his partner is gentle, and knows what he's doing, and the pain is swallowed up with a pleasure to rival getting a stubborn spell right, of sudden inspiration after a long writer's block. Afterwards Tom throws an arm and a leg over Carl's body, and Carl hugs him tightly and whispers "I love you" in Speech into his hair. Tom returns the sentiment.

At this moment, they are both 23 years old. Tomorrow Carl will ask Tom to stay in New York with him, Tom will insist that someday they own dogs, and they will plan the rest of their lives together over a breakfast of pancakes with the feeling that the universe intended this for them all along. They will be right.


End file.
